From the Passover Haggadah: '‘Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you, upon the kingdoms that do not invoke your name, for they have devoured Jacob and desolated his home. Pour out your wrath on them; may your blazing anger overtake them. Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens.’
We don't have any good ideas for the week of 10/9/23. Usually we think about writing on the weekends. Not this weekend. This morning we are totally unprepared to do our job. Our goal today is simply to concentrate on work. Doom scrolling Twitter isn't a very good use of our time.
We'll say so again, we've seen things you wouldn't believe. This includes photos of dead Hamas terrorists and vids of Israelis abusing Hamas prisoners. The Israelis never post stuff like that. We're beyond shocked at the photos of dead Israeli civilians and raped women. Go to Tablet for an account of the mass rape of Israeli women at the music festival. The Israeli death toll is 800 now, nine of them Americans. This blog is indifferent to Gazan casualties.
We wonder how. How was Hamas able to do this. Just like after Pearl Harbor. How? How did the Germans surprise us in the Ardennes in 1944? How did Egypt and Syria surprise Israel in 1973? How did the hijackers pull off 9/11? The Israelis will conduct a post-war inquiry. Maybe Israeli intel failure on 10/7 is Netanyahu's legacy. Or maybe, sometimes, the other guys just beat you. There will be time enough for recriminations after the war. We'll judge Bibi when the war is over and Gaza has been razed.
Right now Israel has the world's support. How long will that last? Hamas supporters held a rally in NYC yesterday. And NJ.com ran a story about Gazans and West Bank Persons living in New Jersey. There have been counterprotests and some brawling. Normally we'd fly our Israeli flag. We were getting it out yesterday and thought, 'Better not'. We'll wear our Israel hat around though.
General Nagid continues to Tweet through it.
This morning we see the Israelis have turned out the lights and turned off the water in Gaza. Good. So far the Israelis have launched a lot of air strikes, a lot. In our estimation the Israelis are waging an unprecedented aerial campaign. Stroock's Books reader(s) know the Israelis need time to get their ground forces in place around Gaza and on the Lebanese border. The Israelis have called up 300,000 reservists. They better. Air strikes and piles of rubble are not enough.
There's lots of talk about war with Hezbollah. The north is getting ready. Hospitals are preparing. Towns are making evacuation plans. Most importantly, tens of thousands of Israeli troops are deploying to the north. In 1973 the Israelis retook the Golan from Syria and then turned around and assaulted Egyptian forces in Sinai. Maybe the Israelis should start the Hezbollah War at a time of their choosing. Maybe now is that time.
This blog is not the place for a blow-by-blow account of events. We urge those reader(s) interested in following the 10/7 War to go to the Twitter accounts we linked to yesterday. These include, Aurora Intel, Israel Radar, Osint Defender, and Rybar Force, among others. JPost's live updates also seems useful.
Final thought and another question, a question this blog asks a lot, what are the unknown, unknowns? We never imagined Hamas using paragliders to get into Israel. What will they use to defend Gaza. What awaits the IDF in Gaza?
If I was in charge I would go into Gaza secure a area then bull doze every building in that area don't care if people are in them or not once that area has been completely demolished and clear move on to the next area till their is no more Gaza Strip
ReplyDeleteThere are no words. It’s shocking and appalling, but judging by the messages that we are getting on the side of the highway “ if you see terrorism call this number” someone, knew something. They heard chatter and they were… and probably still are expecting something to happen…
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